Excalibur Epic Collection: The Sword Is Drawn

Author: Chris Claremont

Excalibur was an off-shoot of the X-Men centered around Captain Britain and various mutants who came along for the ride. Written by Chris Claremont of X-Men fame, the title was not merely a way to capitalize on another mutant team title, which Marvel was riding hard at the time, but was a way to make use of Captain Britain, a character created by Claremont, but really defined by the work of Alan Moore and Alan Davis. Several of Moore's more cosmic influences were incorporated by Claremont, which gave it a very different feel from his X-Men work... even if he was working with many of the same characters, including fan favorites Kitty Pryde (as Shadowcat), Phoenix, and Nightcrawler. The idea of a team that was essentially a team to defend the British Isles may seem odd for a US-based company, but Marvel hadd always viewed the UK as a valuable market, even establishing the Marvel UK imprint, initially just to reprint Marvel's US-based stories, but later to create original works. Unlike the X-Men of the time, Claremont seems more interested in the idea of location more than character relationships, though there is certainly some of that present as well. In a way, Excalibur's relationship to the UK is more like that of Batman to Gotham, and that gives the Epic collection that collects their story a powerful note.